By: Sean O'Kane
Nikola Motor Company has filed a lawsuit in Arizona alleging that Tesla’s all-electric Semi infringes on the hydrogen truck startup’s patents. The lawsuit claims Tesla willfully copied these patents in creating its electric truck, and Nikola is seeking $2 billion in damages in return.
“It’s patently obvious there is no merit to this lawsuit,” a spokesperson for Tesla told The Verge. A representative for Nikola Motors said in a statement to The Verge that “[w]e are not commenting because it is in the courts. The lawsuit speaks for itself.”
Nikola was founded in 2014, and the company showed off its first two products — an electric four-wheel offroad vehicle and a hydrogen-electric semi truck — in May 2016. It has since added a second semi truck to its eventual lineup, teased some all-electric personal watercraft, and announced plans for a $1 billion factory in Arizona.
The complaint filed by Nikola lays out a number of claims that, viewed together, the company says prove Tesla cribbed from the startup’s patents. Nikola points to supposed similarities in the trucks’ front fenders, wraparound windshields, mid-entry doors, aerodynamic fuselage (with similar drag coefficients), and more as evidence that Tesla copied its design. It also claims that a recruiter for Tesla, Aaron Hoyos, tried to poach Nikola’s chief engineer just a few months after the startup unveiled its hydrogen semi truck, and that this is evidence that Tesla was aware of Nikola’s unique design features.
Additionally, Nikola says it was able to identify that Tesla’s truck might be infringing on its designs from spy shots that littered the internet in the weeks leading up to Tesla’s mid-November 2017 reveal. The startup says it sent a cease and desist letter (which is included as an exhibit in the lawsuit) to Tesla on November 7th asking the company to delay its announcement until the issue was resolved, but that Tesla never responded.
Read More >> https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/1/17309430/tesla-lawsuit-nikola-motor-company-patent-trucks
